Jawar Mohammed’s Clarification on Recent Controversial Speech

In recent weeks, several video clips from my speeches at various events have been systematically edited to present a narrative that portrays me in the worst moral and political light. The latest of these doctored videos are pieced together to create the impression that I was advocating violence against Christians in Ethiopia. Needless to say, this is a calculated and horrendous political strategy so commonplace in the Ethiopian political landscape. Let me say as clearly as I can: I find such views so revolting and so repugnant that it has no place in any civil political discourse. Whatever motivated those who engaged in EPRDF style character assassination, this past week has given us an impeccable evidence about the state of our media and the place of truth, and journalistic ethics in their operations. It is also ironic that many of the individuals and groups engaged in this propaganda are the same people who went a long way to disparage me as ’naïve’, ‘spineless’, and ‘passivist’ for writing and speaking about nonviolence. Given the sensitivity of the issue and the malicious manner in which these videos were edited and presented, I want to take this opportunity to explain the context in which that particular speech was delivered.

On May 25, 2013, I was invited to speak at a town hall gathering organized by Risala International, a consortium of three Minnesota-based mosques. There were several prominent spiritual and secular leaders from various communities in North America. Present were also representatives from the Minnesota delegation to the U.S. congress. Based on my own observation and the organizers account, the audience consisted of Muslim Oromos, non-Muslim Oromos, non-Oromo Muslims, and Ethiopians of other faiths.

As I do with every invitation, I asked the organizers to give me a specific topic to address, a language of their preference, and format of the presentation. In this case, the organizers asked me to analyze whether the Oromo struggle and ongoing Muslim protests for religious freedom are complementary or contradictory. I prepared my presentation in Afan Oromo, however, after learning there were attendees who do not understand the Oromo language, I ended my comments with a rather condensed summary in Amharic. Given the moderator was flying the ‘times up’ sign on my face, I did not have the privilege of explaining my point in details

It was at the end of that comment that I made a statement which led to a controversy and used by interested group to advance their own political agenda. I said where I grew up, where Muslims make up majority, there is a broad consensus that people would stand up and fight; and the saying goes, they would fight with what is traditionally known as Menca in Afaan Oromo. Here I was trying to underscore the point that even if politically powerless, being numerical majority brings about a sense of collective security which leads people to confront the abusive state head on forcefully. Hence, this serves as a restraining factor against those who seek to undermine their dignity. In contrast, where the politically oppressed is also numerically outnumbered, the sense of vulnerability might lead to submission to injustice; consequently enabling the oppressive system to violate their rights with no fear of repercussion.

Every normative community has its own unique way of assigning and discerning meaning in a text or utterance. The expression I used is a sarcastic expression used for a humorous effect. Although it did not occur to me at the time, sarcasm, like satire and irony, works precisely on the slippage between what is said and what is meant. It is often joked among Oromos that Manca is a weapon of pride in Hararghe, as Shimala (a stick) is in Shawa, Eboo (a spear) is among the Arsi, Togorri for Karrayyuu and so on. These cultural expressions make meaning only within the cultural geography in which they are uttered. I suspect that the majority of the participants attending the consortium understood that the expression is intended not as a statement of fact but as sarcastic expression that signifies almost the opposite of what it seems to say. However, when several versions of the video—some of it doctored to generate the political effects needed by my detractors—several friends, colleagues, and other individuals who did not understand this cultural context expressed their disappointment, hurt, and even a rage. I fully regret these unintended consequences and the lack of foresight on my part.

I understand that a lot of Ethiopians disagree with my views and I welcome all constructive debates and criticisms. However, taking my statements out of context and juxtaposing unrelated events for mere character assassination is not only malicious but also an outdated political tactic. In this era of heightened instant communication lies have a shelf life of minutes before being countered by facts. But during that short lifespan, they could cause serious harm, not so much to their targeted subject, but more so to the unsuspecting general public.

If it is of any help, those who want to mislead the public should know that I am a product of an interfaith marriage. My father was a Muslim and my mother was from an Orthodox Christian background. Moreover, my wife is a Lutheran. I do not advocate religious freedom and interfaith understanding and tolerance because it is fad of the time. I was raised with and live by those values.

Now let me return to the real issue at stake. I would like to remind all that the defamation campaigns, including the distortion of this video followed the Al Jazeera program that focused on the plight of the Oromo people, in which I was a panelist. The frenzy has now gone beyond defamation and verbal threat. Abdi Fite, a young Oromo journalist was recently ambushed in Washington DC, physically attacked and threatened with knife to his throat. This attack happened following a video Abdi released sharing his perspective on being an Oromo. Those who are trying to silence the Oromo voice through physical and symbolic violence should reflect on history and revise their strategy. My reading of history is that targeting Oromo individuals have not yielded the intended result of destroying the struggle of Oromo People.

The Oromo people have a just cause that no amount of violence nor distortion can delegitimize. The Oromo nation has produced and continue to produce sons and daughters that pick up and carry the flag when one comrade falls. For those who are still attempting to recycle the old divide and destroy tactic, be sure that Oromos have a time tested culture and system that cherishes its diversity and promotes pluralism. Oromos are masters of coexistence with their neighbors. They are also fierce warriors in defense of their sovereignty. The just Oromo struggle is about restoring dignity to a people who have been ruthlessly denigrated, and violently subjugated. It is a struggle that gives back to the people their right to self determination in its fullest sense. This sacred goal must be achieved no matter the cost.

FBI should have to watch Jawar Mohamed closely and investigate his sources of income before its too late.

This person was 1-st introduced to media by VOA as a political analyst while he was a student in US. The promoters were OLF and Dr. Birhanu Nega pupets with in voa. Is he a product of American university? a 21-st century graduate? an elementary school Ethiopian student have a better understanding & point of view than this self claimed jihadist. Jawar undermines Oromo Orthodox, Protestant and Catholic Christians to impose his radical islam in his fictitious oromia.

My friend, It doesnt matter where he is living as long as he has presented the pure oromo (oppressed people in Ethiopia, and selectively targeted identity by all the successive Ethiopian regimes) mentality. First of all We are informing you what we think, just in case you have suppotive idea. We are not asking you to help us, and will never do. In return your answers were for us to forget our main identity. This is ridiculous. This is exactly similar to what poor leader minilik and others were trying to do. And you are just picking it up from where they left it. This directs us to identify you as our enemies. For those of you saying Oromo came from somewhere else, pls stop quoting your Oromo-haters story men of 15th century. If you dont, it is useless for you. Because Oromia will be Oromo land forever, and you cant think of changing this.

Dear Jawar,
You have been so successful in flip-flopping and attracting you various audiences by telling them what they want to hear. Now you got caught with your hand in the cookie jar. Instead of asking for apology and move on for the very malicious and divisive speech you make in Minnesota, you still dare to complain your critics who have been your fan for long time and now they say thumbs down.

you said it right. ESAT been advocating Jawar and Hajj Najib with out seeing the big picture just for cheep political gain.
the two people said the eighty per cent Muslims in ormoia can kill the rest 20% using kochera.
HaJJ Najib the leader of Muslim movement in Ethiopia from diaspora think there are 50 million Muslim in Ethiopia and he told them it is a simple mathematics to change the country.
I use to support the Muslim movement back home with out knowing there real motive and goal.
Now thanks to Jawar and Hajj Najib we know it all.
why need to kill Christian.
jawar is a secessionist and Hajj Najib is an extremist.

We know from the beginning that the muslim protest have a hidden agenda from secessionist and extremists.

People like Lemagne beyene heard saying he doesn’t mind to be killed with muslim extremist kochera.

for him begging dollar and live in million dollar worth of villa is his target he doesn’t care for the people killed with this small mind extremist and secessionist .

Thanks God the majority of Muslims and Ormos are not thinking like Jawar and Hajj Najib.

If OLF question been oromo question no power in the world wouldn’t have stop it.
and the same the muslim extremist question if the majority muslim was asking the same question let alone the ethiopia gov the american even wouldn’t have stop them to get what they want with power.

those people who live and enjoy the democracy of the west and wish and preach extrimisism and ethinic war to ethiopians have to be told to stop

You are an educated man? a man of 21 century? why you think only about Oromo? There is no systematic discrimination against Oromo or anyone at this time or of course there are those who lost their land to investors who are from different ethnic in Ethiopia, not necessarily Oromo. I feel you are a secessionist even from this writing? You must know the majority of Ethiopians including Oromos do not subscribe to secessionism despite EPRDF aka TPLF promotes secession. You must know the time you declared secession you will face the reaction. It is the law of physics my brother.

I do not care about your religion or who you married or what ethnic you belong; your ethnic or religion must never be an issue in the 21 century. I have to be honest; Before you showed up on Aljezera, I had a great respect for you because I believed you are someone who apply your mind and guide yourself by pure reasons than by ethnic secession politics. This ethnic ideology does not just fit this century. I have many Oromo friends and they do not subscribe to OLF ideals.

You are a scholar but you make yourself representative of all Oromos? why? who elected you? Are you sure your represent the about 30 or 35 million Oromos? It is unethical to present yourself as representative of millions of people without any vote of confidence?

Do you know TPLF does not represent all Tigreans leave alone individual people like you? TPLF is not elected by the people based on reason, may be accepted based on its ethnic composition by default and by its genesis. It is wrong to act as representative while you are not elected.

You must understand whether you like it or not, you will face the music of all Ethiopian for harboring secessionist ideology in your mind. Secession will benefit neither Oromo nor amhara nor gurage nor tigrean nor anyone. It is just an outdated ideology.

I do believe it is caused based on unfairness system in Ethiopia in the past. I do believe all the TPLF, OLF, ONLF, EPLF,… had the same cause. They were created in response to suppressive elite amhara system. I can not condemn why they existed because based on pure reasons I do believe they were inspired by ethnic repression. However, it could have been still easier to respond with uniting ideology instead of responding by yekurfia ideology. I call ethnic ideology yekurfia or yemakurf ideology that is so narrow and only thinks about one ethnic.

You live in the United states; but you never learn like the rest of Ethiopians? That is bad brother. Does anyone identify you as Oromo in USA?

I came across an Oromo on train some years ago. He appeared to me typical Ethiopian. I said selam in Amharic. He kept quiet. After few seconds he told me he is not Ethiopian. I apologized him that it is because I thought he is Ethiopian and he looks Ethiopian. Then he told me he is an Oromo, but not Ethiopian. I laughed oh my God. Hmm,I asked him who really care whether he is Oromo or not here in Canada? To be honest, Canada is not a good place for ethnicists. In Canada, your ethnic, your race or your colour, your religion, your birth place, your citizenship does not get you anywhere. In Canada all race, all colour, all tribe or all ethnic, are treated as human; it just amazed me why he was still stuck in his ethnic politics in Ethiopia.

I asked him why do you need Oromo stuff here in Canada? I asked him did anywhere anyone asked your tribe or ethnic here in Canada? he said no and I asked him if being Oromo has any benefit in Canada here? He said no benefit. He told me it is because he does not like Ethiopia and the name Ethiopia was amhara abssinian name. I told him the name Ethiopia is not amhara name. It is a name that has been written for millennia. It has nothing to do with Amhara. He could not honestly defend that. He was brain-washed to believe Oromis are not Ethiopian.

I told him that I love him whether he accepts or reject Ethiopia. I told him he looks Ethiopian in appearance and he can not change that. I told him it is irrelevant in Canada to entertain all these ethnic stuff. He eventually agreed with me and now he is my best friend. I have many Oromo friends, but he is the only who thinks of OLF way. My other friends even not agree on the use of Latin instead of Geez. They tell me it is /was wrong to import Latin instead of using Geez. By the way, even the word Oromo itself is Geez word.

Brother Jawar I personally love you like any Ethiopian and I can only say to you since you are educated man of the 21 century, you need to think better than Oromo only. We need a strong, united, prosperous Ethiopia that treats all those who live in it with dignity and integrity. Secession is not in the interest of all Ethiopian. Unity with diversity is power and strength, not bad.

I agree the past was bad for every Ethiopian; unity was defined as monolithic or uniform. The old system defined Unity as speaking one language, practising one culture and one church only. That was a national disaster policy. It created all these tplf, olf, onlf, eplf,….

But now we need unity with diversity where people use their language, culture, norm, value,… as they wish. There is no need for dividing Ethiopia into piece;

I suggest you visit Canada and see how people live here. Arabs flee from their oppressive religion in Saudi Arabia and enjoy freedom here in Canada. Iranis come here, Libyans, Syrians, North Koreans, South Koreans, Russians, Chinese, Columbians, Mexicans, Latin Americans, Europeans, Africans, Arabs,… all come here and live with their language, with their culture or religion,… unity with diversity. Why is Canada the melting pot of all ethnic or race or colour or tribe or ethnic or religion? It is the Canadian ideology that made Canada a home of for all human being regardless ethnic or race or colour or religion.

Brother Jawar, we want Ethiopia to be like Canada the least or more. Even the Canadians states which had independent colonial history are united under Canada. I can live or work anywhere in Canada and no one cares where I came from. What is expected of me is only to obey the laws and rules like every body else.

But to your surprise, you will find Arabs who dream to change Canada to Islamic state. There are crazy people on this planet who will never be satisfied unless everyone follows their religion. They come here from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and enjoy freedom and take advantage of the generous opportunity given to them by this beautiful country but they still never change and dream to change Canada to an Islamic state.

Jawar, you are young and I hope you will develop more and broaden the spectrum of your political views than to remain stuck to your child-hood OLF ideology.

We need a fair, egalitarian, impartial, just, equality based ideology, but not secession in this age of society.

According to me, it does not matter about your religion, ethnic, race or colour or anything, as long as you treat everyone the way you wish to be treated. People will only see what you do and what you say. That is important. you must understand the great majority of Ethiopians are sensitive to their history. If you have reasons put them forward with historical evidences.

Also, you said Oromos are warriors. Every human being is warrior. The amharas are warriors; the tigreans are warriors; the afars warriors, …. everyone is warrior. I do not believe there is special warrior because of ethnic name. If you are trained for war, you will be well fit for war regardless your ethnic or your race or your religion. And war is not needed in this century; Problems are solved by computers in these age, not by gun.

Final note: Please do not allow Arab Muslims to use you. You can see they are not helping Somalians because they are black muslims. You see, the gave to Egypt 12 billion dollars last week. But they did not give Somalians anything. May be the give them money for fighting Ethiopian, but not for their development. If you are opposing the dam with Egypt? you are committing suicide. The dam will light up the houses of all Ethiopians, electricity will not be given to amhara or Tigreans only. If you are siding with Egypt, you are on the wrong side of history.

DaveIb: you need to learn to respect people rights. You have no right to tell people how many lines they must write; if you do not like reading, easy, skip it and shut up your mouth. You are trying to control and manipulate people;

@pulsar: you should know the difference between suggestion and instruction. Most respected international websites put word limits. These allow people to exchange ideas with a few words more frequently.
I guess you’re one of the toxic diasporas. That’s why you reacted without understanding my comment.

@Gezaee
I really appreciate for taking your time to explain what Ethiopiaan means and its significant for all ethnic groups in Ethiopia. But, I don’t think an opportunist like Jawar will ever listen to your advice, due to their rigid nature and the benefit they got from their ugly talk.

Ayte Geezae,
Do not try to implicate an Amhara elite as a suppressive regime in the past, and has been the cause for the rise of secessionist groups-now i challenge you to come up with a list of names of Amhara origin whom you said was an elite group that suppress other groups-the faggot wallelenge from my province was a proponent of this so called Amhara domination know knowing even his peers from wollo who were tigray origin. Son of a bitches like you are Amhara enemy and rest assured that the young Amharas will avenge our enemy no matter how long it takes-we will not shout like the mad dog of the oromo extremists nor to the cancer tplfites. We will not forget nor forgive! Again i challenge you to come up with the list of names of Amhara origin, and the military, economic, and social domination on the rest of Ethiopia-in fact i will provide you plenty of your ethnic groups ethnic apartheid exploitation.
Yimer Besha
ye galloch aleqa
from Adeyna Amhara qebele
Dessie zurya

You want to challenge me? I believe you are Shabia who is trying to drag me into un necessary squabble. I love all Ethiopian; I love amhara like myself; If you have problem with anyone; it is not my business; it is your own business and you need to deal with it. I love every Ethiopians as myself. I have no enemy and I will not have in the future. Thank you.

Geezae, shabiya is your close relative than me-in fact to all your tigrayan junta leaders, shabya and Eritrea is there to exist as a nation at the expense of the rest of Ethiopia, and that is why Aboye sebhat is saying over and over again in defense of shabya and Eritrea as a nation-this is because it is advantageous for the tigrayan ethnic junta across both merem milash to live in two houses to exploit the masses! So you better listen this-Yes i am challenging you to provide evidence about the so called “Amhara elites” that exploited the promos, and other ethnic groups-yes come up with the list of Amhara elites, their political organization, the economic and social apparatus that was designed to exploit the rest of Ethiopia. Yes come up with solid evidence that supports your accusation-why do you fear? As Amhara native from wollo, we know who is who in my province, in fact it was the brother of Esayas Afewrki who was governing wollo during Haile silasie lead government-we know what he did-we never treated him as a foreigner or because of his ethnic origin but their kinsmen and the tigress from adwa was advancing this Amhara elite exploitation myth in order to gain/assume central power with the consent of the galla/oromo tribe from the south.
It is funny that you labeling me as Shabya-lol-i can talk to you in person if you want-i do not fear going to public debate about the issue with you. Let alone an Amhara ethnic group, an Amhara elite can not be a scapegoat to your ethnic juntas political maneuver in Ethiopia. So do not make noises-ask your kin from Adwa(Getachew Reda) who speaks the truth about the political process in the past, and present! Yes, Again i challenge you to come up with solid evidence about an Amhara elite exploitation of the rest of Ethiopia! Give us the list of names, the economic exploitation(how much this elite took as a booty from the exploitation…etc)
Yimer Besha Amha
i am waiting your response-if you do not have one, do not ever ever implicate an Amhara for the misfortunes of the nation! If that nation failed, then it is the failure of every one from north to south.
P.S. ategebe bithon noro ye fiyel wetete neber emaregik! ye shimagle kelal nehe! Trust me you are grandpa for me-

dear saunt
you look like you know the hisory of wollo i have one question if you have an answer pls. who was woldeluel Hashim from wollo the relation ship with emperor haile slassie? any one can answer my question

The ethnicity thing is not a black and white one. I am Ethiopian; I speak Tigrigna but half of my brothers belong to different tribe as per our “yekebele metaweqia” even though they shared the same womb with me. So it is easy to see that the so called “biher” in Ethiopia is not something that really separates us.

There is no systematic racial segregation in Ethiopia. If EPRDF is does something, does it equally to all Ethiopians.

Let’s remember to build things in our own pace, in a way that takes Ethiopian political context into consideration. The Arab world can never be a roll-model to Ethiopia as we are miles ahead of them with respect to democracy. I reckon that we have a long distance to go to turn Ethiopia to democratic utopia as it entails the participation and dedication of every citizen. However,polarizing people through race and religion is hardly the solution.

I wish I have a coffee talk with Gezaee and Jawar together (of course in Canada or here in the US) where we can have civilized debates without a possible fist fight.
Jawar, please wake up!
and Gazaee, you have a hiden talent you need to nurture.
Can’t we even learn how the ugliest civil war in America gave birth to this woderful democracy. How about the two world wars helping shape Europe in a way it is now. If you think these two are things of ‘whites’ and don’t work for us, we can refer to SA and Rwanda where a deep rooted reconcilation was built following unforgetable bloody massacrs. Jawar, are we still serious about dividing Ethiopia in ethnic lines and forming 80+ states from that tiny country of ours as if the cessation of Djibouti and Eriterea was not enough?
Good luck with that. But do not try to benefit from those poor soul’s lives killing of each other while you and me are living the life you and me know here in the West in the comfort of what it can offer. How many more lives should we lose for the egos of self appointed leaders like Jawar. Enough lives were lost during the ‘Zemene Mesafint’ and other civil wars up until recently.
I do not believe for a second that we should, as new generation, pay it in kind because Minilik or Theodros had cut hands of few defiant ethinic leader’s hands. It has been 100+ years since then!
peace
peace.

Why are muslims always being considered to be terrorists or enemies of christians? Why do Ethiopian Christians hate muslims, who are the most humble, harmless and peace loving people? Please, lets leave aside this religious war and live in harmony! After all no matter how we insult and denounce the other religion (both muslims and christians),there is no way that people of one religion will be victorious and the other ones be the losers! Every one will be the loser and this country will continue to suffer for generations to come! Lets live in harmonyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!

The “appology” ended again clearly with a call for violence.
I conclude the video and the subject matter in the video is not doctored or taken out of context. Not a single word or sentence calling for peace and reconciliation. It is all about resentment and revenge and singling out a group as the oppessor and the other as oppressed in a multi-ethic mosaic soceity of Ethiopia. This is factually wrong unless to nurture resentment and doctor voilence among peaceful living people. It is outrageous again that this person is using an appology to call for a voilence. It shows a wierd and decitful mind at work, a perfect aggitator and criminal.

Thanks for clarifying everything Jawar. I think you have done the right thing. The uproar from the majority of habesha’s who try to portray things in the unintended way, let them carry on. They are all about empty rhetoric. We all should realise this from their history. Oromos have every right to defend their right without violating any other Ethiopians right. There is no other people that is as tolerant as Oromos and that is why Oromos are not being respected despite being the largest group in Ethiopia. People should know that. Their ignorance is they still don’t learn from history that hatred against Oromo doesn’t serve any purpose, especially when they are preaching unity. They will never get that dream of theirs unless they come to understand, unity comes only when they respect all citizens equally, treat the others the way they would like to be treated. That is the hard fact they should have the courage to accept.

You are putting lipstick on pigs
lips.You have a very extreme point of view. You will see for the future where your extreme point of view will take you. It is a good lesson for Christians specially for government cadres. you are not the product of oromo people ,you are product of radicalise Al-Qaeda and modern terrorist.we know how many Christians(amhara’s) killed by mencha. we know why you hate Christian(amhara).we will never leave you.

You are just a hypocrite and opportunist of the highest order. In fact, most of the so called opposition groups to the Ethiopian government are bunch of confused individuals with NOTHING in common. The only thing they ALL know and do is HATE the hard working Weyanne NO MATTER WHAT, AT ALL COSTS and BLINDLY. Without Weyanne these bunch of scavengers would tear each other to bloody death. Of course that is why they are lovely toys of the mad man in Eritrea IsaAsssss and his EriSAT TV.

@Jawar”
You said “Abdi Fite, a young Oromo journalist was recently ambushed in Washington DC, physically attacked and threatened with knife to his throat”…..

Really!!!!!!!

This is simply another version of Abebe Gelaw accusation’s.

It is not strange to see among Toxic Ethiopian diasporas and I am simply enjoying the democratic deficiency Ethiopian Diasporas word wrestling…
I knew this is a political incorrect question but I have to ask….
How long will it last the fight in the fist of Amharas, euphoria and disease of with hyper-nationalism.
versus
Jawar Mohamod, the darling Ambassador of OLF and advocator of mushrooming islamist insurgents in Ethiopia.

I have on serious question, the so called ‘Independent Media ESAT” didn’t speak a word about this sensitive issue.
What a strategy!
Is this not volume enough to be news for ESAT which report one dozen of protesters in DC every single Sunday…

Dear Jawar aka Ahmed Gragn, was your speech “I’m an oromo 1st. Ethiopianess is forced on me” also doctored by Aljazeera???
Preach peace bro. Together we are strong divided we fall. i thought you knew that already.

Girma
Yes he is right to be Oromo first & then an Ethiopian! This is just natural! As a little baby, I know only the laps of my mother, then our house-our neighbors-Kebele- the city I grew up-Awraja-Tigrai then finally Ethiopia & now I’m an American! Did you understand? He said he is first an Oromo & then an Ethiopian ! This just a simple logic!

Jowar is telling you how he feels about his identity, therefore, the only way is to understand who he is respectfully! Do you want tell his who he is or he has to tell you how he feels about who he is?

don’t try to defend the un defendable just for your sick ethinic politics idea.
Jawar didn’t say i am oromo first then ethiopian. He said he is oromo first and ethiopian is forced on him.
I know he have american citizen but if he choose not to be ethiopian then he have to stop meddling in ethiopian politics and stop preaching the extremist to kill christian.

@mario,
Have you listen to his speech with al jazira or you are simply guessing?
You have no clue at all. He was excited to talk about new nation building. Where is that new nation? where is its boarder?
Another talk was in the US. He declared ware on christians?
And the christians will keep silent while terrorists like jewar come and slaughter them.
Many people support the muslim demos in addis thinking that they will benefit out of it. But Jewar had now told them the reality. It is about killing christians.
It is an external mission from egypt and other countries like saudi and natural enemies of ethiopia.
Now jewar is the default leader of all such ill motives.

Mario, I think u misunderstood me bro. there is no problem in saying “im oromo first”. My point is Jawar says something then when he discovers he has done wrong he again says he didn’t do it. No tribe in Ethiopia has the mandate or right to force Ethiopiansm on another tribe. That’s the constitution has an option for dual citizenship up to the point of forfeiting your own citizenship to another country. What is most disturbing is when individuals try harder on destabilizing their country than working to improve it. For me personally I always look at the economic aspect; is a farmer in Tigray, Gojjam, Wollo, Gurage, living better than a farmer in Wollega Gonder, Harar, Arsi? The answer is no. The past confusion didn’t improve the lives of a certain community against another community. We are in the same boat.

The sadest thing is, those who blew themselves in the world trade center some 12 years ago and killed thousands of civiliance were young grade students trained in the west. They were intoxicated at some point by bad ideology mixed with religious or ethnical fanatism. The difference is, our gentelman with the blue collar is bold( or fool ) enough to spreed the same fanatic theories he heard in some fanatic back yards circles, on a public gathering.Alas, this makes him no less dangerous.Unfortunately hate seems to be once contacted, difficult to cure. As Ethiopian and citizines of all peace loving people, we shall never never tolerate any kind of wicked theories, in whatever color they come, be religeos, ethnic or nationalistic, or from whoever they come.
This kind of individuals may come any time any where. The only thing we can do is to watch out and expose them and their wicked theories.
God bless all peace loving people!

juhar mohhammed and those in ADDIS ARE BASICALLY THE SAME. THEY ARE CUNNY. THEY WANT TO DISMANTLE THE COUNTRY EVEN USING TPLF LORDS. THEY TRY TO CLEAN CHRISTANITY IN THE NAME OF AMHARA FROM ALL REGIONS. COS THEY RELATE AND STUDIED THE RELATIONSHIP OF RELIGION WITH ETHINICITY. IF YOU SUPPORT OROMO MOVEMENT,YOU SUPPORT ISLAM. IF YOU DESTROY AMHARA ,YOU CAN DESTROY CHRISTIANITY. AND FINALLY THEY WILL DESTROY TPLF AND THEN WILL BE EASIY TO HAVE ISLAMIC GOVERNMENT IN ETHIOPIA. THEIR SYSTEM IS COMPLEX. TPLF IS FOOLISH THEY ARE LED BY THOSE UNDERCOVER EXTRIMIST IN ETHIOPIA. THEY BUY THE TPLF LORDS WITH MONEY AND THEY TRY TO CLEAN ETHIOPIA FROM CHRISTINITY. THE AMHARA FARMERS WERE BEING PERSCUTED WITH THE TABLET(TABOT) FROM SOUTH REGIONS. COS THE TABLET WAS FOR AMHARA PEOPLE IN THAT AREA. SO THOSE ISLAMIC EXTRIMIST WAS TRYING TO CLEAN CHRISTIANITY WITH THE INTENT OF CLEANING AMHARA. TPLF SHOULD BE AWARE OF THIS.

There is no TPLF, TPLF is now called APLF, Arab people liberation front. APLF used TPLF to remove Ethiopians from their land and settle Arab tribes. Woyanes are Arabs; they are not Ethiopian. They are antichrist and devils.

Please do not be a fool!. are you reading your own fiction?
oh sorry,
you could be shabeya. you are always there on Tigrai online, promoting racism.
I ask Dwait to erase you from this site.
We do not want this site to be a battle field of racist cyber worriers. you you want so, go to TOL.
This, site is for matured people; for exchange mature ideas and for promoting unity, peace and democracy.
So, avoid words Amhara, tigrai, oromo etc.please. Ethiopians are one and the same.

Dear Jewar,
How many dollars are you paid by the egyptians to dismantle Ethiopia using violent islamic insurgents. Ethiopian muslims and christians are used to live in matual respect and harmoney. what is the use of violence, now, to these Ethiopians? yes, it is very crucial for egyptians?
So, brother, do not sell the country for money. The oromo people have all the right to ask for full democracy like any other ethiopians. but if you introduce the idea of extimism and violence, that will not work. We Ethiopians will fight you at any cost till the last drop.
And as a youg muslim educated in the US you could have been a role model of idea generation for unity and manual respect but your mind is already intoxicated by old olf values plus muslim extrimism and also mission of shabeya and egypt. you are so opportunist. I used to respect you ideas untilrecently, but now you are lost. As promoter of violence, you are some one that every oromo all ethiopians should fight you. You are a carrier of dead and outdated ideas which do not match you age and your education. lost, sorry for you!
The Ethiopian people and Ethiopia shall continue to survive against all evils!

@ Jawar
We don’t need any explanation from U we heard your awkward speech in different media. Regardless of your hate speech against Ethiopians and Christians in particular, Ethiopia and Ethiopians will continue to Exist. Please, do not show up again on a media and web where Ethiopians is not in question. Preach your hate propaganda to your narrow minded friends not for us

Jewar?
As a violent, you can not be a democrat. The oromo people expects nothing from you. And not only Ethiopians, but also the whole world will fiht you and your likes. The fate of extemists and violent islamists, what so ever color and name they gave to themselves, is failure.
In this article, you tried to hide yourself in the name of the Oromo freedom. You are cheating your self because the people have already learned about ‘who you are’. You are simply an agent of external forces, and you need to financially benefit out of it. This is the fashion nowdays.

Juhar, You are young with bright future and I very much assume you can diagnose the informal and formal nature of Ethiopian politics better than most of us.
We all some how push wrong buttons in our daily life .
The real challenge shall be how to recover and gain a momentum.
My suggestion to you and the oher islamic leader is to find reconciling atmosphere not duck tape repair like what you just did.
You can quote me wrong. ” Trying to amalgamate religious affair in to politics is a fastest way to downfall.”
Hate to see you out of the game this way .

You are entitled to call your self either oromo, or china or whatever, but you have no representation of the entire oromos to vent your retarded fixated tribal mumbo jumbo by saying we oromos…..stop to act a reperesenative of oromo without the conscent of oromos, however your stupid approach to act like a rabid dog will not be a concern as the majority of oromos along with other ethiopians to fight weyane irrspective of your endless empty echo.

Apology has to be sincere don’t no need justification for your mistake or clarification. I was trying to understand Jawar so I went back and watch interview with different media before his speech in Minnesota and Aljazeera including ESAT’s Yagerlige interview but what I found out a very conflicting and most of the time speculative and contradictory statements. in one interview he said” I am an advocate Oromo peoples voice not a member of OLF or other party’s” and the on the other one ” this is like soccer game you have to be in the field to play not out side” …” I support none violins struggle”….” I said where I grew up, where Muslims make up majority, there is a broad consensus that people would stand up and fight; and the saying goes, they would fight with what is traditionally known as Menca in Afaan Oromo ” those are his few self contradictory words from his own speech and interviews.
about living to gather with others ” First the Oromo peoples have to be on power they have to control the leadership, economy and military states of that country after that we will determine to live or not to live with others”….” It is beneficial for us to live with others” …
Dear jawar this is not any personal attack or character assentation on you It’s rather a question of clarity where you stand. only when you do business you stand in two cross rode and said if this way is not working I will go this way because there no human life involved. In politics you need to have a firm stand and what you say and how you say it is very important. because that is the only way you can rich out and persuade people. you can negotiate with peoples how have a definite stand from you even if you have opposite views. but if you swing like pendulum her and their you confuse every body including your own. the only peoples how stay on split roads road corners are only opportunists.
of the three factors of persuasions *_ethos, pathos, and logos, always should come first Unless you established your credibility as a speaker. I don’t see any of this three from any of your speech or Interviews.
Dima Dimanco.

*The Greek word “logos” means “word,” “speech” or “reason

*Ethos comes from the word “ethikos” which means “moral” and “showing moral character
*Pathos traditionally means “suffering” and “experience.”

I think we do not have to talk much about Jawar. We were disappointed about him because we expected much better from him. We gave him the highest esteem and when his words did not much that we complained so much. Once we know he is the likes of Gelasa and the rest separatist advocates, we do not talk about him. His audience will be OLFites only. He just chose his audience to be OLFites and in that context we will help him. We have to stop talking about Jawar as if it is an Oromo issue. He is not.

The typical character assassination of Chauvinists and promoters of parochialism! If you don’t confirm to our political view , we will belittle you and assassinate your character. Such is the politics of those who are baptize by the so called ‘Ethiopiawinet”. According to ‘Ethiopiawinent’ one has to be an Ethiopian before he becones an Oromo, Wolita or Sidama. If he prefers to be a Sidma first and an Ethiopian second, he will be labeled as a narrow nationalist , less patriotic , and the list of insults goes on. Therefore, in order not to be labeled as narrow, people like jwar have to confirm to the whole world that they are Ethiopians first. They have to change their Oromo or Kembatta name to Amhara name so that they be became ‘Ethiopians’ or technically Amahras. This was the trend before the TPLFites invaded a morbidly sick ideology and administration of the previous regimes. However, instead of trying to establish a genuine democratic system and institutions, the TPLF has embarked in a divide and rule policy the primary objective being looting the country dry. Hence, for TPLfites this is a good opportunity to bombard Jawar with insults since he has been a staunch critics of the looters. TPLFites the in fight between the Chauvinists and those who demand and fight for genuine democratic right is a golden opportunity to further weaken the struggle. so for Chauvinists (excessive patriotism) if one does confirm to their defunct ideology , she/ he is a TPLF sympathizers. For TPLfites if one does not support their looting , he/ or she is an OLF, Ginbot 7 or a terrorists . These are the two extreme views and positions that are dragging the country into future chaos. One has to confirm to one of three two deformed ideologies or else he will bombarded from both sides. This is exactly what is happening to Jaware.
Jawar appeared on Aljazeera TV last month and said he is an Oromo first. Then he went to Minnesota and said fifty percent of Ethiopians are Muslims. So let us unleash him with an insult so that he will be quite and believes in our distorted ideology. If they get the opportunity they will try to confront physically those who oppose their distorted view point. For example, last month some hooligans confronted a singer who is new to Washington and forced him to say things against his will.
In my opinion there is a third alternative that will lead to democratic governance and equality. Chauvinists and promoters of parochlism MUST stop belittling those who promote a third and viable attentive. There is no place for Chauvinism and it has failed miserably. Likewise, TPLF’s parochialism and loot everything approach will fail miserably. TPLFites to lump other ethnic groups to its creations such as OPEDO and other TPLF’s satellites will not work in the long run.
Jawar or some one else who speak his mind should not pay attention or respond to chauvinists and promoters of parochialism. It is a waste of time. It is very hard to convince a chauvinist that there is a better way of looking at things. But one things is certain Chauvinism has no place in the future of democratic and new state that we aspire to create.

@Saint Just attack Ideas not the person. Rotten speaks show how rotten is the mind. The way u speak shows how the society u came out of it is ill minded and disrepect other societies. Your racisim even expanded its arrow to our good friends of Africans. Do u think u r wollo? what is the meaning of wollo in Amharic? what about Gubba lafto,guguftu,marsa,kombolcha,jama,dogolo,? Don’t say wrong about any body, whether Africans or other Ethiopians ethinics it is inside your blood. Agree with youreslf and love others. Hate is a symbol of internal conflict.

Bro, it is clear that you have a point of view but you are totally missing the point – don’t you find what ‘the dude’ reflected in his speech at a minimum distasteful? May be, or maybe not so – just asking.

Hey Jawar , don’t give a dome abut some Ethiopian ignorant who doesn’t represent the Ethiopian peoples value rather serve the woyane interest unknowingly in the name of Ethiopian people.The Oromo people are fully supporting your ideas and the struggle you are in to defeat the woyane/TPLF regime once and for all.
Please don’t waste your voluble time with useless arrogant and hypocrite individuals with out vision and back ward thinkers.
we are in 21st century not 1800 handers if they choose to keep their old thinking mentality and still wanted to undermined the oromo people cause and its democratic right to fight injustice in oromia and Ethiopia then will be a loser at the end !
Keep on the fight we shall over come !

This is getting uglier. Whenever there issue about oromo something from some where aches the back of the so called patriotic ethiopians. It is incredible the natural enemies- the racist and ultra nationalist tigres who happen to be fortunate to the lead the ocuntry for the past two decades AND the teethless amharas who see themselves the only savior the the ocuntry will unite all of a sudden. There is a deep hatred against oromos from both section. Rather than discussing and trying to bring together the country with mutual respect these individuals always threw their frustration with oromo scholars because they see them as a threat. Jawad has every right to express his opinion oneverything. He even has all rights to claim himself non ethiopian but oromo.All thugs above writing critical of hom shut up and leave him and oromo people alone.Oromo will decide their fate.

Most of you were not thankful for Juhar as he came to apologize. Was he being politician? Was he afraid of Amhara critics or others? I do appreciate at least for him to come and say sorry. This is the culture we need to move on. We can not hold him for what he was in the past. At any rate, while Juhar had to come forward, no body took responsibility for any of the pas misdeeds of our country against Oromos, or Muslims or Afars or Somalis. Time to come forward. I expect someone from amhara to come forward and apolgize in the name of the Orthodox church. Saudi Kings do not represent the best of Islam. Every help is for their own survival. Somali is not critical for their survival. Arabs help not based on religion. The Kings are not elected by the people. Until Muslim get democracy, please do not accuse Muslims or Islam for this or that. In Canada they may ask for Sharia. As long as they are peaceful do not make them look violent. What we need is free expression of ideas and even sometimes harsh and aggressive use of words. It is okay. Let the media do their job to bring those issue to us. No worries as long as we believe in one Ethiopia.

Dear ignorant jawar THOUGH YOU MAY THINK YOU ARE SMART ENOUGH TO BULL WE THE OROMO PEAPLE YOU NEED TO KNOW YOU ARE THE STUPIDEST MAN WE OROMOS HAD IN HISTORY WE KNOW WHAT WE NEED AND WE KNOW WHO WE NEED FOR YOUR INFORMATION I ATTENDED YOUR SPEECH AS A MUSLIM AND I WAS ASHAEMD OF YOU WHEN YOU TOLD US TO BE ENEMIES OF ANY CHRISTIAN WE MAY HAVE PROBLEM WITH THE GOV. AND SHORTAGE OF GOOD GOVERNANCE BUT WHY DO WE HAVE TO KILL AND DESTROY OUR CHRISTIANS BROTHERS ALL YOUR TEACHINGS AND SPEECH ARE TO MAKE HAPPY TO YOUR MASTERS AND THE FOOL FOLLOWERES OF YOU WHO GIVE YOU MONEY SO THAT YOU CAN SPEAK WHAT THEY WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR BUT YOU KNOW WHAT WE OROMOS ARE IN ADAMA AND JIJGA NOT IN US SO IF YOU REALLY CARE ABOUT US COME AND WE WILL WELL COME YOU THE WAY YOU DESERVE BEFORE EVEN THE GOVERNMENT REACH TO YOU WE WILL GIVE YOU WHAT YOU DESERVE ARROGANT STUPID AND SUBHUMAN JUST FOR THE SAKE OF MONEY YOU WANT TO USE OUR NAMES? HAVE YOU EVER THOUGH ABOUT OUR NON MUSLIM OROMOS DO WE HAVE TO KILL THEM TOO? AND DO YOU THINK CAUSE YOU AND YOUR MASTERS SAY SO WE WILL DO IT. WHERE EVER I FIND YOU JUST THIS IS PERSONAL I WILL PUT YOU ON FIRE REMEMBER THIS YOU TERRORIST.

shame on u when you say I’m Oromo,such like stupid and ignorant person can not talk about BRILLIANT,PERSON JAWAR,he is a person who represent 45 million people.and also try to cry u’r phobia about oromo.
generally every oromo can understand from u’r one word as u are from CHEBA and GEJA amhara

@AwrambaTimes Editor
I am one of those who follow the news that is posted on your web site. It is my understanding that the site usually tries to balance its audience regardless of their belief. But, I fell sorry to see the person who lines him self for the destruction of our home land to have a big news coverage at the front page of awrambatimes. I am taking about JAWAR. His awkward idea does not deserve to be posted on your front page since we have more important items than his divisive idea.

I perfectly agree with you, this guy doesn’t deserve a front page. As one of the readers said above, he started with hate and violence and he ended up with that. He shouldn’t be allowed to use this site for his hate and violence propaganda.

Unwelcome person for politics. Why our people people find their place where they can fit? this guy is mixed politics, religion, and ethnicity. I think he was confused, because some of the notorious and layers diaspora media outlets portrait him as an intellectual and politically matured. If we have at least few dedicated matured intellectuals, our beloved country ETHIOPIA would have not be suffered from lack of peace. Most of the so called intellectuals are poor in their judgement, so be this guy whom I am talking about. Condemning the government does not show maturity. Especially those who are openly condemning the government but do the same things behind the curtain. I prefer to live with the current government than with those Machiavellian oppositions, especially from Diaspora who do not have agendas rather than criticizing.

I am so fascinated with your article. It is simply a brilliant, well thought, and well organized. Habesha politicians or those who suffer from Oromo phobia don’t have anything to offer in-terms of substance and values. The only thing they do best is CHARACTER ASSASSINATION.

No one is closer to you when it comes to political analysis. Habesha politicians are envious of your success and international recognition. You shouldn’t worry about them at all. You are the best. Believe me you are destined for greatness. Keep it up! May God be with you always.

If he was educated to reason, to question and to make sense out of this World, How can he be a believer of Muslim religion? does he really believe he will meet 60+ virgins in heaven?
If he was able to read about humans history in their journey, was their, justice, freedom, equality,,,,,? so, he believes his clan is the only one who suffered not humanity? OOOH Ethiopia!

I learn about islamic extremists like jawwar and whabiya ppl at platalk room at ethio Christian and muslim discussion room.
people like jawwr and hajji nejib would like to implement sharia based gov’t.
say no to islamic government in ethiopia.
please see…..abuja declaretion,Muslim countries plans for ethiopia in 1989.and its implementation.
..wikileaks, whabiya missionaries in ethiopia,by us. ambassador in Ethiopia ambassador Yamamoto report.
DIG FOR YOURSELF.

I just want to let you know that I was really disappointed by your comments on Aljazera and the loss of vision to lead the struggle. I really thought that you were the man that is a bridge to unite the main ethnic groups (Oromo and Amhara) to a better democratic Ethiopia. If you have such a narrow vision of struggle that only focuses on the Oromo people your struggle is doomed to fail. Any ethnic based struggle in Ethiopia will ultimately hit a dead end. I really thought you were passed that stage and fight for individual liberty. Oromo and the rest of ethnic groups in Ethiopia are one. You will not succeed with your narrow vision of ethic based struggle. As a matter of fact you are prolonging and sabotaging the struggle with your narrow vision. Lead as an Ethiopian so we can follow you or get out of the way so we could have a visionary leader.

look how this man is confused to sale Ethiopia ormo to kill their brother Christians in Ethiopia. You are preaching from America to create confusion in Ethiopia. we are following your stupide speeches every where thanks to the internet and other medias. I would like to tell you u are failed as Ormo, as a Moslem and as Ethiopian. why you want the Ormo people to be poor by preaching war against their brother Christians Ethiopia. Do you thing the Ormo people will gain something by killing their follow Christians, and do you thing that the ormo Muslims will not be harmed by this action.
Why you don’t stay in America in peace and live our brother Ormos in their struggle against the poverty. I think you immigrate to America because there was no food in Ethiopia. Now you are eating a lot of hamburger and you want those poor Muslims of Ethiopia to do war against their brothers to make happy Egyptians and your stupide Muslim scholars paid by Muslim brotherhood of Egypt.

I dont think jawar said muslim oromo to kill christian ethiopias no he is peaceful man.Jawar is fighting colonil rule in ethiopia to reach free OROMIA.All these attaks against Jawar is because he used ALJEZIRA To tell the whole world that he is OROMO,Ethiopia was imposed to him.Ethiopia is fake country and colonialist.

Mohammad I have heard him in Aljazeera He is First Ormo and then Ethiopian. If you want to defend him say loudly. He is not Ormo and He is not Ethiopian He is American and move with American Passport. What is the aim of these people who became American and disturb the poor Ethiopians. Amhara, Ormo, Tigraian, all the Ethiopian nation and nationalist are living in Harmony in Ethiopia with all their difficulties and poverty what are these warmongers preach from America to disturb the equilibrium of existence of these people. who give them the authority to talk about Ormo, Amhara, tigray, etc while the whole population in Ethiopia is working hard to resolve their problems, and these stupide scholars want to harm the people of Ethiopia.

Jewar is also a Liar,
He tries to twist realities. Assuming that he will get the heart of the oromo people, he said that a journalist is beaten, threatened, …in the US by other Ethiopians. Can he gave us evidence? no evidence. he is a lear.
He is pre-emptively, guessing to prevent himself from future attack. But, his fate, as an extremist is nothing more than that

Lij Jawar, Zebraki! Yezinb Tengara ke gidgida sitigztch tiwulalech. The damage is done. Please watch your mouth next time. I am just worried what kind of children you are going to bring to this world. Wake up and work for unity than sessetion. Be a good person, a good husband a good father. Use your God given talent for good deeds young man!

This guy has gotten more than his enough share of our attention; perhaps, it’s time to move on. Obviously, we all have the right to express how wounded and violated we felt by the narrow, fatalistic course he seem to advocate in his speeches and public discourses.

To me the teachable moment out of this unfortunate episode is- that one recognizes the need to self liberate oneself before answering a higher calling of advocacy for liberation of others. Mr. Jewar’s action is a further reminder that no one group can be free if not all of the people are free.

The question is – are we inadvertently allowing ourselves to be used by him, offering a homage for his radical views that most of us find absolutely objectionable.

Dave this guy is an opportunist. I know you did what you have to do by posting here. But we are not stupid’s. He is the most disgusting man with no identity. He lost himself somewhere and confused and confuses many of innocent Oromo brothers. He said “angetun be mencha” this is enough man. It is enough to see what he said from time to time about Ethiopia and people in Ethiopia, but he is in his day dreaming…EPRDF is right concerning the Muslim extremists. We know there are many political problems in Ethiopia, yes that’s right. But EPRDF is 100 times better for me than these murders “sharia” dreaming evils, the likes of Jawar and others. Why do people march for the 17 prisoners? Has anybody checked their profile what they did in 21 years? ESAT and Tamagne are doing historical mistakes concerning Muslim extremists and by advocating “wetatu ye poletica mihur”. I am not saying ESAT is all bad. But just because we don’t agree with EPRDF way, we should not be blind on what is going to come to the innocent farmers of Ethiopia. One of my problem for EPRDF is that they are too late to expose the agenda of the extremist wehabiy murderers, that may be intentional or not but they will be punished with it. We have many Oromo brothers who we love each other unlike the Wehabist murderer who preach out there for a blood shade. Time will tell us what wehabisis have done in Ethiopia.

Either you are stupid which I don’t think you are or you are getting paid by Egypt or even TPLF. Both assumption could be true because Egypt wants to distabilize Ethiopia using hodam Oromos like you or TPLF wants a new hate mongor Oromo leader like Lencho who sputes hate and creates mistrust between the Oromos and the Amharas. Thank God the Oromo people are much wiser than you think. You really sold me and I really thought you were genuine. You are nothing but a used car sales man. If I had a used car lot I will hire you in a heartbeat. I am from Ambo, Ethiopia full blooded Oromo but I am an Ethiopian first and Oromo second. All you are doing is knowingly prolonging our struggle for freedom and justice from a few TPLF cadres for just a little change. You are indeed not only narrow minded but selfish.

BELEW! you yourself are not even better than a Doooooooooooooooooog!
Writing just for the sake of writing with no substance and rational thinking. You better go to school, you kind of good for nothing and illitrate!Stop insulting muslims and making fun of arabs, Ethiopia also belongs to muslims, so please try not to tell us that we are arabs or what have you!

It looks like, Jewhar has been infected by the worest infectious virus that has been affecting so many young muslims all over the world. So far, we haven’t seen anyone recover from the viscous disease, but to blow up themselves…so, it is a matter of time to see him solving his own problem…LOL.

Dave this guy is an opportunist. I know you did what you have to do by posting here. But we are not stupid’s. He is the most disgusting man with no identity. He lost himself somewhere and confused and confuses many of innocent Oromo brothers. He said “angetun be mencha” this is enough man. It is enough to see what he said from time to time about Ethiopia and people in Ethiopia, but he is in his day dreaming…EPRDF is right concerning the Muslim extremists. We know there are many political problems in Ethiopia, yes that’s right. But EPRDF is 100 times better for me than these murders “sharia” dreaming evils, the likes of Jawar and others. Why do people march for the 17 prisoners? Has anybody checked their profile what they did in 21 years? ESAT and Tamagne are doing historical mistakes concerning Muslim extremists and by advocating “wetatu ye poletica mihur”. I am not saying ESAT is all bad. But just because we don’t agree with EPRDF way, we should not be blind on what is going to come to the innocent farmers of Ethiopia. One of my problem for EPRDF is that they are too late to expose the agenda of the extremist wehabiy murderers, that may be intentional or not but they will be punished with it. We have many Oromo brothers who we love each other unlike the Wehabist murderer who preach out there for a blood shade. Time will tell us what wehabisis have done in Ethiopia.

there was no need for clarification…it was clear for whoever listened to the audio. he said, where i live 99% is Muslim so there is no chance of infringement on our affair and if there is we will get rid of him with the available tool in the locality.(this statement was an off topic example to the main line of discussion which was a dialogue that he had with a a muslim gondere regarding the minority status of islam in gonder).

if anything, it was a unifying speech to the venue.

now what really is surprising is where messay of esat radio distorted this message and made it seem that jawar said 99% of ethiopia is islam and made it seem that jawar was calling for a massacre which, for the settler psychosis driven amharism, previously wounded by his remarks on aljazera, allowed a spring board for a lynch. of course you opportunist tirgians jumped in to fan the flame. not withstanding that messay will of course pay a definite price, of spiritual realms, i still think that this is an open and shut case of defamation against esat radio.

P.S..do you guys know if ESAT has any mandate to drive the form of federalism that is supposed to happen in ethiopia?

People have the right to demand the sizes of information they are offered to consume. You can not force feed any one unless you are the usual dictator who says my way or no way, like this Gezae guy. Cooment are usually few line not kilometers of irrelevant boring falk tales.

Jawar,
I think your clarification post is rather a reiteration of your original statement. I believe you are genuinely trying to apologize but you just short of doing it right.

Remember, the time in which where one ethnic group is seen as dominant or displaying chauvinistic behavior is long gone. I am sure we both can agree on that. Although we have a long way to go, at least in the last 20 years, we have being heading toward the right direction.

However, if you are trying to address the historically injustice by being ethnocentric, expect a lot more backlashes.

Finally, you have used STRONG statement particularly toward the end of your writing, strength does not oppose value!

I don’t know why anything that has to do with Juhar has always gone viral. This person as I think is one of the rising political analyst on Ethiopia and the horn region as a whole. We are not even back tracking our rage against him even when he is trying to apologize for his over sightedness.
Instead, we have to appreciate him for coming forward and argue his position from an Oromo perspective unlike the OLF elites. I have no problem if Bereket Simon is posting some article on any media outlets including Awaramba times website.
The only way we can fight back Woyane’s divide and et tactic is through opening our hearts to every opinion no matter it is against or in favour of our beliefs.
Juhar is standing by what he said. Let him entitle him to his own opinion.

The problem is not Jawar; The problem is woyane Tigrai and Islam. Woyane tigrai handed Ethiopia to Suadi King via Alamouldi. Now the country is ruled by Suadi King. There is no government in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is now ruled from Saudi Arabia. We have to see the cause of the the problem. Woyane is the cause of the problem.I am affraid woyanes craziness with Arab money will completely destroy Ethiopia.

Secondly, the problem is not Jawar or Ethiopian muslims. The problem is islam only. As I mentioned above, Saudi Arabia is in Ethiopia as investor; Egytians are in Ethiopia as investor? Woyane let them in without any regards for national security. What do you expect? Many concerned citizens warned many times, the policy of woyane is agaisnt Ethiopia; however, woyane will never be happy unless they destroy Ethiopia. Unfortunately, it will not be the woyanes who be cut their throat by mincha, it will be the innocent Ethiopian christians. I think woyanes wanted to make Ethiopia an islamic state? This is what exactly happening now.

As long the Arab investors and Egyptian investors are in Ethiopia, it will be foolish to expect Ethiopia will survive after now. The enemies are inside and they do not need to fight from outside as they did for millennia.

If you fight us will beat you so bad, in every Oromo behind there is Amharas will taking care of you !! Go ahead try ! As long as we are there you will not get power because you deserve it you don’t how to lead the country. My grandson will fight you. Oromo there is no place or land in Ethiopia , you need to find where you came from read your story!!

Dear jawar, i am ashamed of u really. Why do u play by the name of 35 million people? Ar u elected or being selected representative of Oromo peoples by Allah or ar u king of Oromo peoples? How do u got enough confidence of talking about Oromo as a whole? I have been admire u before as a youth politician. But u r an agent of Qataris, muslim brotherhoods. I saw u have not independent idea. Ur idea is depend on the situation of politics. U r opportunist. Why u don work as a daily labor in USA, rather than collecting money by name of Oromo. Really shame on u. Whatever u and ur likes talk Ethiopia is going forward. Come and see the reality. Seeing is believing. Come and see what oromos and other nation and nationalities of Ethiopia are doing now? As Ethiopian i need a more unbiased politician.

Ante wusha yeset lij asedabi maferia! Am pure 100% Ethiopian !! And am proud Ethiopian They [ oromo]never been Ethiopian. Why Ethiopian people babysitting this mother fuckers. You should go back to madegascar !! We don’t like you no body like you kill yourself. Bunch of garbege.

How illiterate and stupid you are? for you and those fucken like you life is only eating ‘shiro’ twice aday politica is distasteful for you.you amhara have a proud of talk what a mess you are still talking what loser! STONE HEAD TRIBE

I did not know that we have such trash-full minds in our society. I really pity and doubt where this country is heading for in this manner. But on the other hand, I also feel relieved when I imagine that these are just a few of the scums in the society. The media should do something to stop these type of dialogue.

Where’s the said apology? Didn’t see one. But Mr. Jewar on the other hand thinks that is the best he could do on that front. What matters here is both he and the rest of us see the need for an apology for a grievous misdeed.

Our views so narrowly crafted along ethnic/racial boundaries are blocking our vision of the plight of others fellow human beings, whose perspectives might differ from us. For once, we could do better if we try to see through without the aid o our googles. The never ending chatter that thrives by exploiting our differences along ethnic/religious domains has grown so deafening. We have become so sensitized to that and gradually losing our sensibility and accountability to one another, can’t help but jerk at every revelation of new thought/perspective – locked in the darkness of our imagination – fearing our own shadows. Where there is fear irrationality reigns. The question is, how can we be rational and fearless people, again? How can we wholeheartedly take on the mantle of responsibility to build the nation?

So, I am asking- is it possible at all to engage one another with some degree of moderation, without temper tantrum, hurling a fireball of injurious words at each other. Could we speak to the issue without ‘us’ becoming the issue. Could we see the good and the potential to do good in one another. I am not naive, but this is all possible if we sit back, take a moment to reflect, look deeper into our persona, be bold and take pride in our ability to do the right thing. There’s a lot more we can learn from one another and positively so. I believe we ca do this, attitudes can change, views can be properly channeled, we can do to others what we want others to do unto us.

Dawit please we don’t need any clarification from this terrorist .he already said what was his intention .For sure if he get the chance he will cut out throat . so I am begging not to give him any place for this idiot.
Thank you Dawit

JAWAR and The leader of Ethiopian Muslim movement in the diaspora HAJI NEJIB claimed Ethiopian Muslims account 50 million out of 80 Million and we all know what this number going to translate in to ie POWER and According to JAWAR this number should translate in to political power so these WHABISTS have long been aspiring creating A MUSLIM ETHIOPIA by killing CHRISTIAN ORMOS and ETHIOPIANS and I ask stupid diaspora politicians who does not think an inch from their nose from supporting this EXTRMEEMISTS and ESAT is another mouth piece for this TERRORISTS who want to cut Christians by MENCHA ESAT PLEASE STOP BEING A MEDIUM FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF ETHIOPIA try to continue as a positive force for change not a veichle for destruction

@ethiopia
the ethiopian muslims demanded religious freedom.in this 2yrs old peaceful protest we demanded very pure democratic righs of freedom of belief. It’s not about sharia or Islamic state. Please don’t use inflamatory words.
Your intangable frurtration makes u sleepless. We are Ethiopian muslims who share the same line of blood.
BE RATIONAL EVERYWHERE EVEN IN THE PRESENCE OF MUSLIMS
Love you

I have closely observed what Jawar wanted to explain and what Habshas are reacting. There is no way Jawar ask pardon to his speech,What I want to tell to Jawar is leave these rude habashas as we are moving forward to build great oromo nation. We are working to make our struggle produce tangible results for Oromo, as first step our brothers and sister paid valuable cost to regain our father land Oromia, we start to use our language as working language officially, Hopefully, it will take us short time to regain our full identity, self determination and own and administer our resources by our people ( not Habashas)

Jawar, I want to assure you that you are the rising star not only for Oromos, but also for the Absiniyans and the Other Ethiopians. Your rational view is a solution to a problem in Ethiopia. The negatively presenting your speeches and the dirty comments given by patients of Oromo phobia is senseless!! God Bless You! What ever the enemies say, millions of Oromos are with you!!

After reading what Jawar has said, and all what those amharas have replied, I believed those habeshas have no common ground with us. And I am glad that we dont need them anyway. I thought we could lineup for democracy and equality. All what they are looking for is silencing oromos again and trying to eradicate our identity as they were partially successful in wollo, raya and azebo. Ask those guys their name. After three forefathers they start calling very strong oromo names, yet they call themselves amharas. Let me come back to my point. The way they are reacting to Jawar is killing my cells of having unity with them inspite of what happened to us oromos in the past. I beg Jawar not to talk to those ppl. What is the need? We are oromos, everytime we get heard they start whining, crying. They see us as enemies, seccetionists. If we benefit more from seccession, ofcourse we will do it. But always unity is better. But this kind of unity is not. Amhara brothers, let me call you brothers though your fathers were not our fathers’ brothers, stop reacting blind. Jawar never said kill christians, am a christian. I believe in Jesus more than you do. Most of you believe as a culture. For me he is ab author of my life. Jawar presented the reality. If you dont submit to the reality, we have no common ground. I am Oromo first. That is why am Ethiopian, although I didn come to be Ethiopian by willingness of my fathers. If you have a problem with this, the fact is you have a problem with my being oromo. That will make us people of different world leaving in the same country. If you dont respect my being Oromo, I don care. Because it is a business done. You should have fought with derg. That could have suited you more. You come to me and say that I cant be oromo first, is as rediculous as saying you are not you yourself. I think the problem of you is, when people call themselves oromos, they speak oromic, wear like oromos, and do for improvment of their people. That could be a pain in your ass. You cant turn it around anyways. For me all your comments agains Jawar stated above are shit. It is amazing to discover how much you hate us. Those people commenting against jawar as if you are oromos showing us how desperate and afraid you are. We oromos know what we want. Pls leave us alone. And if you want any future with us, stop insulting any oromo scholar. I am proud to be Oromo. I hope a better Ethiopia will convince us all, although your wish is ugly Ethiopia.